Graduating MBA student Hillary Lewis could hardly imagine what the next few months would hold when two of her professors at UVA’s Darden School of Business approached her about creating a consumer products company. The timeline below illustrates how quickly a company can start up in Virginia’s supportive entrepreneurial environment.

April — Walking through a natural foods store, Hillary learned about High Pressure Processing, a unique technology that inactivates bacteria while at the same time preserving vital nutrients in food and beverages. Inspiration struck and Hillary came back to her professors with the idea for a healthy juice company.

She chose the name Lumi, which is an acronym for LoveUMeanIt, a slogan Hillary shared with her undergrad sorority sisters. The company was incorporated on April 18 and the brand message is one of both loving the company’s juices, as well as loving yourself by consuming healthy products.

May — Hillary and her professors visited the High Pressure Processing Laboratory, part of Virginia Tech’s renowned Food Science and Technology program. The team learned that HPP is an innovative technology in food safety that kills microorganisms and extends shelf life through extreme water pressure. It avoids using chemicals and heat that can alter the taste and nutritional content of foods and beverages.

June — Hillary headed to Miami to visit Hiperbaric, the world’s leading manufacturer of HPP equipment for the food industry. She came away with additional knowledge and an agreement to lease one of the company’s machines for arrival in September.

July — The next step involved looking for a space to set up manufacturing. Hillary worked with economic developers in Albemarle County to find a suitable building. She found the perfect location at 1822 Broadway Street in Charlottesville, an industrial district that is within walking distance of the downtown mall area. The 12,000-square-foot facility is approximately 50 percent manufacturing, with the remainder allocated for office and warehouse space.

August — Lumi began setting up shop in an empty warehouse, which included adding everything from plumbing to electricity. Dominion Virginia Power was particularly helpful in upgrading the facility to the necessary 480 volts in an expedited time frame.

September — The Hiperbaric machine was delivered and the team configured production, warehousing and office space.

October — On October 11, Lumi produced the first HPP juice off the production line. VDACS came out to inspect the facility, and according to Hillary, “On October 25 we got the okay to sell and it was game on!”

November — The company has been selling its fresh vegetable and fruit juices for almost four weeks. Lumi has already branched out from Charlottesville to retailers such as Whole Foods Market and Relay Foods in Richmond, D.C., and Rockville, Md. From weeks three to four the company has more than doubled sales.

According to Hillary, “One reason I went to business school was to start my own company. I believe in the viability of manufacturing in the U.S. and in creating jobs and industry at home. I feel really fortunate there have been so many wonderful people that have been a part of this. We wouldn’t be here today without the support of partners at the university, state and county level. I feel extremely thankful and regardless of the obstacles, every day is more wonderful than the one before.”

Use the highlighted links to learn more about Lumi Juice and why Virginia is a great place to start a business.

In the last few weeks, Virginia’s wind industry has won validation with two positive announcements from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and Department of Energy (DOE).

On November 30, the BOEM announced federals waters off the Virginia coastline qualified as one of only two wind energy areas (WEAs) for the upcoming competitive lease sale process. This is the first-ever wind energy lease sale on the Outer Continental Shelf.

The Commonwealth’s WEA encompasses 112,800 acres located about 23.5 nautical miles off Virginia’s coastline. According to the BOEM, this area would have the capacity to produce more than 2,000 MW of wind generation, enough electricity to power 700,000 homes.

On December 12, the DOE announced that a Virginia team led by Dominion Virginia Power was one of seven projects awarded an initial grant of up to $4 million for the engineering, design and installation of an offshore wind turbine demonstration facility.

Dominion will install two Alstom 6-megawatt turbines off the Virginia coastline using an innovative “twisted jacket” foundation that requires less steel. In addition to Alstom Power Inc., the Dominion team includes KBR; the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME); the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; the Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute; and Newport News Shipbuilding.

Virginia-based Fugro Atlantic has also been selected by the DMME to conduct a geological survey to study the seafloor of Virginia’s WEA in the Outer Continental Shelf.

Recognition from both the BOEM and DOE highlights the Commonwealth’s strengths in the offshore wind industry. Virginia is well-positioned as a leader in this renewable energy field, offering the ideal combination of strong Class 6 winds, shallow waters off the coast, an experienced maritime workforce, a robust transportation network, and access to a fully operational high voltage transmission grid close to shore.

Often called the “Energy Capital of the East Coast,” Virginia is home to more than 380 energy companies and has seen more than $4.6 billion invested in energy projects over the last decade. To learn more about Virginia’s burgeoning energy industry, click here.

It makes for a good read. The article underscores Virginia’s efforts to maintain a strong base of power generation from various traditional sources, while a variety of renewable resources and their associated technologies take on a larger share of the power-generation picture.

There’s no doubt the Commonwealth views nuclear as a key pillar of our unique generation and power reliability story. The power of the future belongs to Virginia. Home to three of the top global players in the energy sector (AREVA NP, Babcock & Wilcox and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding) and a plethora of national players, Virginia’s cluster of technology, workforce and corporate businesses positions the Commonwealth as a leader in clean energy and advanced manufacturing of components for the energy sector. The vertical integration of Virginia’s assets—from workforce to real estate to research & development, to regulatory climate and proximity to market—means that energy-related companies can grow in a business climate that is prepared to sustain their competitiveness for the long term.

The article highlights the groundbreaking of the new AREVA Newport News project, a joint venture with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding to manufacture equipment and pressure vessels for the nuclear industry. Governor Kaine will join AREVA and Northrop Grumman officials later this month for the groundbreaking ceremony in Newport News. Also discussed are several industry firsts that are happening right here in the Commonwealth: Babcock & Wilcox’s plans to develop a scalable, modular game-changing nuclear reactor, Dominion Virginia Power’s plans to build one of the first new nuclear reactors in the U.S. in three decades, and Virginia Commonwealth University is the first state university to add a nuclear engineering track to its masters engineering degree program.

The Commonwealth’s energy sector already employs more than 31,000 people, and Virginia ranks second in the number of nuclear engineers. We see both of those figures growing by leaps and bounds in the coming years, thanks to programs such as PRODUCED in Virginia (Providing Undergraduate Connections to Engineering Education in Virginia) and important strategic investments like that of the Virginia Tobacco Commission toward R&D facilities and research contracts, mainly around energy.

With help from a state interagency energy task force, VEDP is actively seeking project opportunities across the full spectrum of traditional and alternative energy resources. For more information about operating your energy facility in Virginia, visit us at www.YesVirginia.org or contact Mike Carruth at mcarruth@yesvirginia.org.

Categories:

Actions:

Search

Blog Homepage

Subscribe

About VEDP

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), a state authority created by the Virginia General Assembly to better serve those seeking a prime business location and increased trade opportunities, provides confidential site selection and international trade services. VEDP's mission: To enhance the quality of life and raise the standard of living for all Virginians, in collaboration with Virginia communities, through aggressive business recruitment, expansion assistance, and trade development, thereby expanding the tax base and creating higher-income employment opportunities.